The present invention relates to defensive weapons and more particularly to a spring whip which can be conveniently carried by a user and can be easily placed in its whipping position.
With the increased amount of crime, and especially attacks on individuals, there is a great need for defensive weapons which can be used to inflict a limited amount of pain so as to act as a deterrent. The weapon should be of a type which can be conveniently carried by an individual, and at the same time be available for immediate operation should an emergency situation arise. Numerous such defensive weapons are currently available. However, most of them require a great amount of time to place into operation. Such time delay can frequently result in harm to the individual before he has an opportunity to even assemble the defensive weapon. Other prior art devices are extremely dangerous and provide hazards to the individual carrying them and are therefore generally avoided. Still other devices are only available for summoning aid by sounding alarms, but do not provide an immediate weapon which can inflict pain and ward off an attacker.
A useful self-defense weapon has been described in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,554,546. In that patent there is described a spring whip which can be utilized as a defensive weapon, and which is formed of interconnected lengths of springs, wherein the selected diameter of the springs provide a compact, telescoped arrangement which attributes to the convenience of carrying the device. The conventional spring construction which consists of a succession of helical turns permits interconnecting of the spring lengths in their extended operative position by merely providing variations in the diameters of cooperating helical turns which produce a wedging engagement between adjacent spring lengths. The lengths of springs are stored in a housing which also serves as a hand grip. In order to facilitate the movement of the springs from their storage to their projected position extending from the housing, a number of weights are movably disposed within the hollow interior of one of the springs and are confined within that spring by bending respective opposite ends of the spring. As the spring whip is projected from the housing, the plural weights move within that spring and roll toward the remote end of the spring to aid in the projection of the springs into their extended position.
While such spring whips have been found quite useful, numerous problems have presented themselves with such devices to detract from their most efficient operation. For example, the lengths of spring did not have an arrangement for restraining their movement within the housing, and accordingly there was a tendency for the springs to loosen from the housing and accidentally move into their extended position. Furthermore, the movement of the weights provided an awkward arrangement in the projection of the lengths of springs, since they had a tendency to roll and move within the spring and continuously provided a source of annoying noise and disturbance. Furthermore, because the ends of the smallest spring were bent to retain the plural weights, the remote end of the housing had a sharp pointed edge, which had a tendency to cut and harm the individual carrying the weapon even when the weapon was not being used.
These and other various problems provided an inconvenience and shortcoming to the spring whip described in the aforementioned patent.